Interest piqued: Apparently the shellac manicure is all the rage. I wouldn’t know because I actually use my hands so I don’t paint my nails (feminist burn!).
Shellac is secreted from bugs. I like things that come from bugs.
The insecta class of animals is fascinating. We rely so heavily of them, and they do so much to support our ecosystem, but they’re widely brushed off.
Shellac is a resin secreted by the female lac bug, on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. It is processed and sold as dry flakes, which are dissolved in ethyl alcohol to make liquid shellac, which is used as (most commonly) food glaze and wood finish.
The world leader in lac and resin research is the Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums their ongoing research projects include “Collection, conservation, characterization and documentation of lac insect bio-diversity” but more interesting is “Development of natural resin/ gum based sticker bindi”
Crushing bugs – for science!
Cranberry Morpheme 